Gilded Jade
by Mintaka
Summary: [SPOILERS!] A piece on Izlude at Riovanes, containing a barrelload of spoilers if I say anymore. Oneshot rated for violence, gore, and such. Read it.


Gilded Jade  
  
A FF Tactics fanfic By D. "Mintaka" Peal  
  
Author note: Introspection on a favorite character of mine, Izlude Tingel. Fair warning: if you have no idea who he is, don't read. If you haven't seen the end of Chapter 3, DON'T READ.  
  
HERE BE SPOILERS.  
  
No crying at me for reading past this point, since I'm about to throw a few out right now, and some fairly LARGE ONES at that. With that, this takes place as Vormav transforms into Hashmalum and goes psycho on everyone in the room. YES, from the point Izlude tries to stop him up unto the point Alma arrives and Izlude fades; that is this fic. Nothing more, nothing less, and hardly fluffy. Rated for gore, language, and other things that make me rate this high. I'd rather be safe than sorry. I took a few liberties with the Alma/Izlude scene on what was said, no major changes.  
  
Without further ado, I give you a look into some of the last moments of Izlude Tingel's life.  
  
%----------%----------%  
  
'I'm a fool, I've failed father,' Izlude thought. He looked up then, his attention caught by the tone of his father's voice, and the words.  
  
"Odds? What do you think you weak humans can do?" Vormav's voice had almost changed, sounding rather angry and an air of superiority Izlude could never recall him having.  
  
"Father.?" His throat was somewhat sore form the screaming he had done at the hands of those ho had tortured him for the information, but his voice was steady enough. However, the man standing there - the person he thought was his father - did not respond. Thunder exploded in duet with an incredulous flash f lighting that almost blinded the room's occupants.  
  
"Don't underestimate us. Killing you is easy." Vormav's voice had taken on an almost gleeful tone now, and it chilled Izlude to the core. The Grand Duke of Riovanes looked very nervous, sweat almost pouring from him.  
  
"Are you opposing me?!" he shrieked, taking a step back. On cue - or worried for their lord's safety - two knights of the castle ran in as two others behind Barinten stepped up aside him and in front of him. The four knights surrounded Vormav, hands on their swords as Izlude watched helplessly, hands still bound. He watched his father look down, which he had often done in thought, but Izlude could not see his face to know if it was concern, or more disturbingly, hiding glee. Izlude shook his head, chasing out the stray, unwanted thoughts of his father like that.  
  
'Its not true. its not,' Izlude thought to himself.  
  
Another clash of thunder roared, and the rain itself tried to force itself through the high windows in the room to no avail. Izlude blinked away the blindness to see his father look up.  
  
"Want to fight.? Fine." The chill of his voice was like an icicle through the heart, and Izlude winced, knowing that voice was not his father's. 'Was he right?' "I'll show you the power of the Holy Stone!"  
  
Vormav drew the golden stone from within the folds of the cloth over his armor, its golden light casting dizzy shadows about the room as its power unleashed, causing Izlude to look away a moment and force himself to watch. It would be something he would regret for eternity.  
  
He watched as the magic of the stone swarmed around his father, morphing from the man Izlude once knew into the form of a large, humanoid lion, muscular and impressive, but frightening. He heard Barinten shriek in horror much as a woman would, and stepped back, shocked and horrified.  
  
'By Ajora, Ramza was right!' Izlude swallowed and watched as the beast lunged for one of the knights near him, landing with a sickening thud on the ground as claws sank into flesh, rending it from bone as the poor man screamed. The other three were stunned a moment by what had happened, and then drew swords. From behind Izlude came two more knights, one of which unbound his hands.  
  
"We need your help!" he said, giving Izlude a sword. "Enemy or no, this beast must be stopped." The two knights headed into battle as two fell before the might of this lion. Izlude found he was rooted to the ground, too horrified to even more, let alone try to attack.  
  
'Father. its not you is it? It hasn't been. I must.. Must attack, but what if father is there? I cannot kill him! I won't! But. I don't understand. Ramza was right, Ramza was right.'  
  
His eyes refocused and he barely dodged the body of one of the knights flung by the beast, rolling into a crouch and holding the sword tightly. 'That thing's stronger than an ox!' Only one knight and Barinten remained aside Izlude. The young blade knight watched as the lion approached the two, hearing its growling breath and every step over the cacophony of the rain.  
  
"Foolish humans, always thinking you are great. You are wrong. No one can stand up to the might of the Lucavi, not you, not anyone." The massive claws clicked on the floor again. "You should have backed down when you had the chance. you could have joined us. but now you will die, like that wretched child Ramza will at the hands of Velius!"  
  
Izlude shook his head, trying to clear his mind of all perceptions and all the things he knew. 'I once thought it was lies, madness, the insane ramblings of a desperate heretic, but he was right.'  
  
"We will resurrect Ajora, and bring back the Bloody Angel and then your world will be ours." Izlude watched in horror as the lion grabbed the last knight and lifted him into the air and then swung him full force into the wall beside them. The he swung again, and another time, and another, until the wall was painted red in blood. Izlude grit his teeth, feeling as though he would be sick, but unable to turn away.  
  
Barinten was against the wall as the body hit the ground. "You will forever burn for your foolish acts, and though you curse the name Hashmalum - the Regulator - it shall be to no avail. You, foolish human, have died in vain."  
  
Hashmalum's large right paw swung out, catching the stunned duke across the face - his whole head - and knocked him aside as a child would a rag doll. He landed several feet away, sprawled on the floor and bleeding from a head wound. Izlude rose, looking upwards. There was room to jump, but not much, and the speed this thing could move made it quite possible he would miss.  
  
He watched as the lion closed in on the duke as he struggled to rise, and pounced, landing full-force on the duke. Izlude cringed as he heard something crack. Barinten screamed in agony. Hashmalum was playing a game of cat and mouse with him.  
  
Izlude felt sick to his stomach at the thought, and more so as he looked at the bloody carnage in the room. He held his blade ready, noticing that Hashmalum was not watching him. Izlude tensed and jumped.  
  
"This is it-"  
  
Izlude landed hard, driving the blade deep into exposed shoulder but had not expected such a quick reaction. Before he could move clear he was knocked back, slamming into the wall and separated from the blade. As his vision cleared he saw Hashmalum was rising, leaving the duke and heading for him.  
  
Much as he hated the duke, his death should not be by the Lucavi. "Run!" Izlude managed, and darted left. His movement was anticipated and Hashmalum cut him off from the sword.  
  
"You. you're the son of this pitiful human. ah, yes. we have no need for you. It was all merely a ruse. You are unsuitable, as is your sister. You two have too much faith in things other than yourselves. You are unswayable. A shame, as you both had great potential."  
  
Izlude grit his teeth, stepping back. "I don't want to hear it!" he shouted. "You. where is my father?"  
  
"His soul is no more," the lion replied, a hint of joy in his voice. "He was quite easy to sway, after all, still grieved by the loss of his wife, and other matters. It was so simple once that foolish high priest handed Leo to him."  
  
Izlude's brown eyes narrowed, and for the first time in his life he felt true rage. "You. you disgust me, destroying lives. you took my father, you ruined my family!!" Izlude jumped again, but this time he landed away from Hashmalum, near another dead knight, this one's head separated from its body. Izlude grabbed the sword from the hand, trying not to think of what he was doing.  
  
'Should I live to see the morn, I think I will be haunted always by this.'  
  
"Your life is meaningless, much as all you humans are," the lion said, advancing. Another clap of thunder roared, and with it so did Hashmalum. "Give up, and I can spare you, turn you, and you can join your father in the absolute void!"  
  
"Go the hell!" Izlude shouted, charging. He was trained for speed, agility - the two things he possessed the most of. He feinted left then shot right, grazing a rib of the leonine beast. He skidded to a halt behind Hashmalum, concentrating on a spell.  
  
Hashmalum as well had a spell on his mind, and he was much more gifted in the magical arts than Izlude. "Dissolve into a fiery world of chaos." his voice rumbled deep, snapping Izlude from his own chanting, "Melt!"  
  
The flames exploded from around Hashmalum and swarmed over Izlude, an agonizing inferno that did not and would not relent. He grit his teeth, stumbling back, and finally screamed as the pain overtook him. He fell back onto his back, but scrambled onto his hands and knees, looking up at the lion.  
  
He pulled a potion and quaffed it, grinning slightly. "You'll have to do better than mere flame," Izlude said, trying to maintain a cool. Inside he as dead scared, and knew he could not walk away alive. 'I cannot and will not run away. I am a Knight Blade. I am a knight. And we do not run. Father always said that. I won't let you down, dad. If anything, maybe I can buy time for Ramza and the others to come and help me.' Izlude picked up his sword, gripping it tightly. "Any more tricks?"  
  
"Plenty, and I might keep you alive long enough to enjoy them all, foolish boy," Hashmalum growled.  
  
Izlude charged again as Hashmalum chanted once more. As Izlude's blade tasted flesh, drawing dark nectar, the spell reached its pitch. "Destroy all time, speed ruin!" Izlude was flung away from his opponent, denied a deep wounding and landed on the ground hard, sliding into the wall. As he rose, battered and bruised, he felt weak. Tired. Lethargic. 'No.'  
  
"Now that things are a bit more even, let's see how you handle things."  
  
'Think fast.'  
  
Izlude did not have the speed he was used to, but he still had his mind. He gripped the sword, hoping that tiny shred of training would pay off from the ninja who had taken rest at the Tingel house once long ago. He aimed as the Lucavi began another chant, and released the blade at the demon as the spell unleashed, crossing paths but not stopping one another.  
  
"Have that!" Izlude shouted.  
  
"Inject evil spirits! Death cold!" he rumbled, slivery lights rising from about him and rushing at Izlude. They hit simultaneously, and the room was filled with the resulting screams. Hashmalum recovered far fasted, pulling the blade free of his leg and casting it aside. Izlude felt agony all over, every part of his body feeling as though he had been thrown into the cold seas outside Murond. Izlude struggled to rise, thinking of his sister - anything - to keep himself going.  
  
'Meliadoul, I'm sorry I'll never see you married off. I won't be there after all, it seems. Not unless hope arrives.' Izlude stood, his left arm aching with a pain unlike any flesh wound. "You may have taken everything form me - my family, and at some point my life, but you will fail," he said.  
  
"You think someone will save your foolish race?" Hashmalum said, taking a step forward. "No one can stand before the might of the Lucavi, especially when we raise the Bloody Angel."  
  
"But you'll fall before then," Izlude said. "Your blind faith is foolish."  
  
"So is yours." Another step forward. "You foolishly believed me, in the flesh of your father, following my every word. You've believed the church, and to an extent the church was not expecting this. We knew in time that the Glabados faith would falter under the pressures of the politicking that you mortals enjoy. And that one of your highest would use our prisons - and that foolish legend you cling to - and reform the 'Braves' - which would allow us freedom."  
  
"A short-lived freedom. Your chaos is nothing, we will endure," Izlude said, coughing. As he drew his hand away he saw flecks of blood upon the golden armor. 'I am. dying. I will not stop until my last breath. I can't. Meliadoul, I wish I could have spent more time with you. My only family remaining. please do not cry for me. I only hope that you do not suffer my fate.'  
  
"As what, pitiful ants to be crushed at our will?" Hashmalum started closing the distance, and Izlude moved back and right, eying the door. "Your dreams, wishes, they are nothing but false hopes, dying before the flow of time."  
  
"And your ambitions are a slap in the face of all that is right, all that is just. You warped my father's mind into believing you in his grief, you are a lie, a stain upon this world. An abomination that the original Zodiac Braves rightly locked away. You should have been eradicated."  
  
"But they did not. Thus is the folly of humankind, doomed to repeat its own failures constantly." Hashmalum charged, much faster than Izlude could move, and pounced on the young Shrine Knight.  
  
He cringed, knowing something was broken. The pain that seared through him - claw and weight forcing more and more injury - but he choked back the scream, refusing to submit. The tears escaped hi eyes, the only traced of his suffering other then the red blood that poured from the wounds. He could feel the beast's hot breath on his neck and shuddered..  
  
"Get. off. me." Izlude managed, gasping for air.  
  
"Or what?" the lion taunted.  
  
"You've said my death is meaningless - should you kill me, it will have meaning." Izlude felt the weight shift, and felt a bone in his leg snap instead. 'At. the least. I can breath again.' He coughed, and saw blood splatter on the floor. 'For what it is worth.'  
  
"Hashmalum moved off of the brown-haired youth and picked him up then, holding him by the throat. Izlude hung limply, his energy expended and in too much pain to even try to struggle. "You are as good as dead. I shall deal with the rest in the castle, and Velius can handle that wretched child who killed Queklain easily. You. I shall leave to your own suffering. A shame you never get to say a proper goodbye to your father. Say hello to him for me in the abysmal nothingness you will reach!"  
  
Izlude felt himself flung, but barely felt the impact against the hand stones by the stairs he had once stood by, bound only minutes earlier. His vision was blurred and clouded, and he barely noticed the beast leave the room. The only traces of it were the screams of horror that echoed back to the great room he was in.  
  
'I. there's so much I never said. I with I had known when my father had changed. I followed him blindly. I loved him. We used to train in our free time, blade against blade.' Izlude smiled very slightly, remembering the days out in the courtyard. 'He was the one who wanted me to become a blade knight, not to follow his path of the Divine Knight, which Meliadoul did.'  
  
Izlude lifted his head slightly, looking at the carnage of red and flesh in the room. 'Ramza had been right, he had warned me. but I remained blinded by my faith. DO I regret this? No. I tried my hardest. I hope I brought peace to someone, that they escaped death because I held him up.'  
  
He closed his eyes, letting his head drop down. A sigh escaped his bloodied lips. 'Meliadoul. I pray you find happiness someday. Sorry I won't see you get married. And please. do not be blinded to this. Do not fall for his lies and trickery. We are all such fools. How many know? And how many more will die.?'  
  
He opened his eyes, unable to see clearly any longer, hints of red lacing his vision every so often. He felt cold, chilled to the bone. 'I've always wondered what death was like. Mother died slowly. I know how she felt. Mother. I'm sorry. You were proud of me. You adored me and cherished me. I wish I could have told you how much I loved you.'  
  
His mind filtered back to Orbonne, when he had taken that girl - Alma - hostage. 'Oh god. Alma. She's here somewhere. That. no, I can't bear the thought if she dies at his hands. God help us sinful children.'  
  
He groaned, feeling his whole body ache with pain. "Are you all right?!" It was a female voice, and as h tried desperately to focus his eyes, he could barely tell it was her. 'She's alive. I. it must be coming back. there are no more screams.'  
  
"S.sword." His lungs hurt badly, and he almost felt as though he were drowning slowly. "Where is it?" His vision was fading fast, everything dim and blurred, as though looking through a fine gauze of black - as though through a funeral shroud. "Must. beat him. please. give me some light. So dark. I can't see anything."  
  
"Don't worry," Alma said, running a hand across his cheek. She could feel the cold of death settling, and choked back tears. The last time she knew that feeling was when her father had died. "No need to fight now."  
  
"Please. tell your brother he. was right." Izlude coughed slightly, and looked up at her, where he ahd last seen her at any rate. "The stones. evil power. that man. not my father. That power turned him. became a Lucavi." He coughed hard, enough to spit blood onto the green of his cloak, staining it darkly.  
  
"Please," Alma pleased, knowing he was losing strength rapidly, "don't try to talk."  
  
'It does me no good to prolong this suffering. I can only hope she will not suffer. I can only hope he has left.' "Ramza's words were true. an end to this world. must kill him before." He coughed again, a trickle of blood form his mouth falling onto the cross necklace he wore - a gift from his mother and sister many birthdays ago. "Tell them all. must stop this fighting. unite. Where is. my sword? I can't. can't move my . arms."  
  
Alma shook her head. "Don't worry. I saw his body in the hall. My brother killed him, you don't need to fight." She recalled the hideous ram-like beast she had found, but had not seen her brother nor any of his allies around at all. She could not imagine how Izlude's wounds were so bad, but she had no practical combat knowledge to know the difference of wounds.  
  
"Really?" Izlude's voice lightened. "That's. a relief. a stone. in my jacket. Give it to Ramza, please. keep it from them."  
  
Alma reached gently into the green cloth, pulling free a amethyst-colored stone with the sign of Pisces. She reached up, brushing a lock of brown hair from his face. 'This wasn't how it's supposed to be.' She smiled slightly. "I'll be sure to do it."  
  
Izlude nodded imperceptibly, feeling his strength fading fast. 'I pray for your victory, Ramza, for this world.' "I. thank you. rest. now."  
  
Alma shuddered as she watched him go completely limp, his life drained from him. She closed her eyes, tears flowing from her eyes. She shook her head, having witnessed another death that shouldn't have been. Her hands clutched the stone in her hands as the tears fell, landing on her dress, her hands, the stone Pisces, and the floor. She hadn't noticed the sound of someone approaching until it was too late.  
  
%----------%----------%  
  
And that's it; lots of fun moments of liberty in story and a helping of gore. I decided not to be nice about it - more of a portrayal of how utterly evil and vindictive the Lucavi were, and something that would have truly rattled Izlude's cage on things. If you don't like it - tough. [Ooo. I sound like Delita. :P] Tis my writing, and that's the way it is. I don't work to please the masses, I work to write something that might have some meaning in it. However, and wherever it hides.  
  
Someone ought to like it, somewhere. Adieu. 


End file.
